Guided ski tours with Swiss mountain guides | Experience untouched powder snow

A Swiss mountain guide takes care of all the professional tour planning, the assessment of the avalanche bulletin and on-site risk management. What’s more, the mountain guide knows the region like the back of his hand and can find the best powder runs and untouched slopes even in changeable conditions.

Our beginner ski tours are aimed at anyone who can ski safely on the slopes (parallel turns) and has the basic fitness required for a 2 to 3-hour ascent. You don’t need to be an expert in off-piste terrain or be able to do complicated kick turns – we’ll show you how and practise them together at a relaxed pace as we go.

On ski tours starting from the hotel, we stay in cosy accommodation in the valley (often with a sauna or spa, as with our packages in Simplon or Goms). Every day, we set off with a light day rucksack on various tours in the region. On a hut-to-hut tour, we ascend from hut to hut in the high mountains, spend the night in SAC huts and experience the pure, high-alpine adventure.

To ensure the highest levels of safety, flexibility and personalised support, we keep our groups small (usually 4 to 7 people per mountain guide, with a maximum of 8). This fosters a cohesive group dynamic and a sense of camaraderie.

Safety is our top priority. Our mountain guides check the current snow and weather conditions every day. If a planned route cannot be completed safely, we will suggest a suitable alternative route in the region in good time or adjust the day’s destination.

Yes. Are you still missing any part of your emergency kit (avalanche transceiver, probe, avalanche shovel), or do you need to hire equipment such as touring skis and skins? We work with partners where you can hire this equipment. We’d be happy to help you hire the right kit.

This varies depending on the tour. For most of our multi-day packages (such as ski touring days starting from a hotel or hut tours), the mountain guide’s services and accommodation with half-board are included in the total price. You’ll find a clear breakdown of exactly what’s included on the relevant details page for each offer.

There are so many cool and rewarding ski tours. The classics among them are:

• Säntis, with the great freetouring options, thanks to the suspension railway
• Lötschenlücke, easy high-altitude ski tour over large glaciers
• Clariden, a ski touring pearl in the Glarus region
• Pizol, easily accessible by cable car and with a few cool couloirs
• Pazolastock, one of the most popular ski tours on the Oberalp Pass
• Sustenhorn, Varied tour, with large glaciers

Nice 2-day tours are the following:

• Piz Palü, the classic in the Engadine
• Piz Kesch, with an exciting ascent to the summit with the crampons
• Tödi, classic in 2 days, as a fitness test also in one day, but best of all, the whole Glarner Haute Route in 4 days.
• Galenstock, the king on the Furka Pass to Andermatt

There are various multi-day tours on skis. These can be done in different variations, for example:

• Haute Route in Uri, a downhill oriented passage
• Grisons Haute Routewith beautiful landscapes
• Ticino Haute Route, from Bedretto to Goms
• Glarus Haute Route, around and on the Tödi
• Passage from Forno area, with jagged granite needles
• Passage from Saas Fee to Zermatt incl. Strahlhorn

But the skis are also great for climbing many high mountains. For example:

• Finsteraarhorn, one of the most beautiful tours on the gigantic glaciers of the Bernese Oberland
• Aletschhorn, versatile tour with three days of action
• Dufourspitze, clearly the longest tour of the highest Swiss mountain.

When you strap your skis back on your feet after the summit, you know why you go on these tours in spring and not on foot in summer. It is magnificent to glide over the wide expanses of the glaciers on skis.

The ski touring season is long. It often starts in December, sometimes already in November, and lasts until the middle / end of May. The best powder days are often a little later, in February, March or April. At the end of the season, i.e. in May and often still in June, the high mountains can be skied. It is unbelievably great to ski over big glaciers, stand on 4000m peaks and then ski back down to the valley, arrive back in summer and climb the last part through lush, green vegetation into the valley.

Sure, you can do it and it's a great experience at full moon. But you have to respect nature, the animals need peace and quiet at night. So avoid the forests, do not use bright lights when climbing and keep quiet. Of course, you must respect the protected areas. You can find them via the Map material from the federal government view.

• Avalanche shovel, probe and avalanche transceiver are standard safety equipment and must always be carried.
• Skis with skins and ski boots and poles are of course essential.
• Plus the right clothes.
• Meanwhile, most people take a helmet with them on ski tours. For spring, there are climbing helmets that also meet the ski standard.

A detailed packing list with packing tips can be found on our website.

On or off-piste, ski touring is done for training and to be absolutely safe with the avalanche danger. But you have to watch out for the skiers and be careful with the snow groomers and their steel cables.

• SRF: Adventure Alps - The Ski Tour of a Lifetime
• Bayerischer Rundfunk: Ski tours around Arolla
• SRF: Haute Route

There is no official longest ski tour in the world. Popular and long is the:

• Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt with around 6700m of ascent and a distance of around 95km.

Popular day tours as a fitness test are:

• the Mont Blanc from Chamonix (3800hm, 15km) or
• the Tödi as a day tour (2800hm, 13km).

The most famous ski touring race is the:

• Patrouille de Glacier (PDG), from Zermatt via Arolla to Verbier, which is organised by the Swiss military.

There are also a large number of different ski touring races:

• Nightattack, at the beginning of the season on the Flumserberg
• MunggaRun, in Elm
• Skimara in Kandersteg as good preparation for the PDG

Details of the Swiss competitive sport can be found at the SAC. Jonas has a lot of experience with ski touring races and will be happy to show you the ropes and train passionately with you.

With touring skis it is important that the skis stay on the ground all the time. The ski must glide on the snow, from back to front. To do this, you take slightly longer steps than in everyday life and use the poles asynchronously for balance. To make a turn, you step slowly in flatter terrain. To do this, you must first form a V and then an A shape with your skis, otherwise you will cross them over. In steeper terrain, you have to change direction with sharp turns. We would like to show you this in a our courses or have a look at this video the technology.